UFC champion Alexander Volkanovski sets retirement terms after next fight aged 38

Should Alexander Volkanovski’s next fight go ‘terribly wrong,’ the UFC champion will call it quits on his MMA career.

Those are the words of the man himself ahead of his UFC featherweight title defence on October 24.

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Volkanovski faces undefeated Russian Movsar Evloev at the top of a stacked UFC 333 event at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.

A victory for ‘The Great’ would take him above Jose Aldo for the most title wins in UFC featherweight history — joint seventh with Matt Hughes for championship victories across all divisions.

Having already established his name as one of the greatest fighters in the promotion’s history, you would think handing Evloev the first defeat of his 21-fight career would allow Volkanovski to leave the sport with his head held high.

However, there’s a reason the Australian fan-favourite is in the position he finds himself today and he’s not about letting the gravy train come to an abrupt halt anytime soon.

Volkanovski talks retirement ahead of UFC 333

“If things go terribly wrong, alright, we’re done,” Volkanovski told 10 News ahead of UFC 333.

“If things go very well, like the last one, no damage, we’ll go through and keep it rolling.”

Volkanovski has faced calls to retire for years now and they heightened when he suffered back-to-back defeats to Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria in 2023 and 2024.

After defending the featherweight title four times, Volkanovski attempted to become a two-division champion against Makhachev in 2023 — but lost the fight via brutal knockout.

However, after taking time out when he dropped the 145lbs belt to Topuria at UFC 298, Volkanovski silenced his doubters when he reclaimed gold against Diego Lopes.

In doing so, ‘The Great’ became the first fighter in UFC history to win an undisputed title after two consecutive losses.

Getty

Getty

Volkanovski explained his love for the sport is what has kept him going at this stage of his career.

“I’m still loving it,” the champion continued while admitting the money is also ‘always good.’

“I love getting into the details of this game and you can say at the end of my career to still be so dialled in I think that’s pretty cool.

“I’m taking each fight as it goes, just trying to be real with it. But I don’t have plans on retiring right now.

“I still feel like I’m pretty explosive, but I’m just trying to be realistic with it.

“People watch me and say, ‘You’re hitting harder then ever.’ My wrestling is still on point.

“A young hungry guy versus the older one, however people want to put it, I guess that is going to be pushed.

“But in my head, I’m not looking at it like that. I just feel like I’m different, I’ve proved that time and again and I’m going to prove that in October.”

Volkanovski will have to be at his very best if he is to overcome Evloev.

Evloev cemented his status as the featherweight division’s number one contender with a majority decision win over Lerone Murphy at UFC London in March.

He made his UFC debut in 2019 and has had his arm raised in all 10 of his appearances in Dana White‘s promotion, including victories over Aljamain Sterling, Arnold Allen and Lopes.

UFC Meta Rankings

The UFC ranking system is ever-evolving and is now more different than ever.

Right up until the summer of 2026, the UFC used its official rankings based on media votes.

However, as of June 22, 2026, the UFC began transitioning away from the traditional media panel to new AI-based rankings in partnership with Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta.

The new rankings will be automatically calculated and updated every Monday following official events.

And talkSPORT.com have made it easy for MMA fans to stay up to date with the new system through a full and regularly updated UFC Meta Rankings list, including stars from the heavyweight and lightweight divisions.